If Seahawks fans have learned anything this season, it might be that even very-talented teams can fall short of their potential if their coaching is not at a high level. Poor coaching and getting outmatched in the trenches against good teams are the main reasons why Seattle has lost five of six, anyway.
The good news is they’re about to face a team that isn’t playing much better right now. The Eagles started the season 10-1 despite a lot of close games, but they have lost their last two games as their defense has suffered from a collapse. As it happens, their defensive coordinator this year is Sean Desai, who served on Pete Carroll’s staff last year as associate head coach.
Desai has perhaps the NFL’s best defensive line, a couple of superb cornerbacks and they recently added star safety Kevin Byard in a trade. However, the results for Philly’s defense have been disappointing. Heading into Week 15 they are on the lower end for most important defensive stats:
Eagles Sean Desai’s defense ranks
Total Defense 22nd
Rush Defense 6th
Pass Defense 28th
Points Per Game 28th
Third-Down Defense 32nd
Fourth-Down Defense 19th
Red Zone Defense 30th pic.twitter.com/IjoBuhct3S— Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) December 13, 2023
Naturally, Desai is getting some heat on social media from Eagles fans. He says that’s part of the job though, per Chris Franklin at NJ.com.
“That’s part of the job, There is always going to be criticism. If you go back to every week of this season, there was criticism based on different things that happened in the game. When you play a couple games the way we have and not being the performance or the standard we want to, that’s going to magnify and amplify. I get it. That’s okay.”
Accepting criticism is only the first step towards improvement, though. As Seattle fans have been forced to witness over and over in 2023, there are a whole lot more before the actual results on the field start to change.
Specifically, Desai’s defense is facing some of the same issues that are plaguing Clint Hurtt’s unit – namely third down and red zone defense.
Eagles DC Sean Desai: Third down and red zone have been our bugaboos. https://t.co/244qvtBLJf
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) December 14, 2023
There’s a common denominator here, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the Seahawks franchise.
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